funkswing, One of the state universities has a ton of info on frost dates, i think here we might be able to squeeze 2 harvests in, just depending on the year. So, i guess right now i am looking for a system where I can get multiple harvests off of each vine

One method i have been toying with in my head is to have some sort of pulley system on top of the poles that is attached to the top of the twine so i could raise and lower the hops for picking. I am not sure how effective this system could be, though.

That is what I was talking about, and how I do it. The pulleys allow you to raise and lower the wire right to the ground for stringing and harvesting.

B-Hoppy: I don't think I get what you are saying. Did you cut down the thin trees to make extensions for the poles? Or are the pipes attached to the trees by a wire/twine? What is the total height of your bines?

funkswing,

the trees(poles) are cut and strapped to the pipe that's been pounded into the ground as a support. the 18 - 20ft. poles can be taken down at harvest and then put back up after harvest to allow the plants to send carbohydrates back down to the crown for a few more months until they die back to the ground. no wires, cables, hardware etc.. only drawback is that the trees/poles have to be replaced about every 3 years. plenty of woods around for that though.

I think I missed some of the conversation as to how many bines are being supported and the trellis configuration... I use a pulley system, one pulley per rope and 3 bines per rope. No need for a crank device unless you are raising and lowering multiple ropes/hop bines at a time.

B-hopppy - makes sense. I like it. It must be fun holding that 20 ft pole with all them bines on it when you first take it down!

It seems that if you used pulleys on a teepee-style trellis that you would be limited to like 4-5 pulleys total on the pole. If you have a way to get to the top of pole easily (like the OP does), I would just attach the twine to the top of pole with some smaller hardware, like an eye-loop and carabiner.
This way you can have the maximum amount of bines going up the pole. Then you could have peace ceremonies inside your dense hop teepee!

something we were discussing last night is to have some sort of device we could raise and lower all of the ropes at once, but also be able to remove individual easily if we needed too

That would be awesome. Would take some planning to figure it out, but once you had it up (assuming it could handle the SD winters) it would be convenient.

I think you could easily get 8 ropes up one pole. The only concern is the density of hops at the top of the pole (where they all converge). It will be a tangled mess. So being able to lower all the ropes at the same time might be a must b/c the separate bines might be all intertwined with ea. other.

Just a thought i had, but what if we had something to prevent the bines from getting into the rising and lowering rigging by attaching something on top similar to what they put on dogs to prevent them from biting themselves. A cone kind of device to shield the rigging.